An Alien-Predator hybrid has been born, and it possesses the ability to breed. When the Predators’ ship crashes in a small Colorado town, humans get caught in the crossfire as the aliens spread across the town. A convict named Dallas Howard (Steven Pasquale), his brother Ricky (Johnny Lewis), his brother’s girlfriend Jesse (Kristen Hager), a mother named Kelly O’Brien (Reiko Ayelsworth) just back from active duty, and the town sheriff Eddie Morales (John Ortiz) struggle to make it out alive.

Directed by Colin and Greg Strause, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (or stylistically called AvP:R or just AVPR) is a sequel to the original Aliens vs. Predator in 2004. AvP:R was not well-received by critics but still had a strong box-office return.

Listen baby…you know I love you…This won’t hurt.

The problem with AVPR and AVP is that they are confusing as hell to watch. The editing on both films is all choppy and since most of the action takes place in the dark, it is unclear what is going on. I’m sure there were some really cool fight scenes in this movie, but I never can see them. Between the sewers, the school, the hospital, the police station, and the power plant, there is so much closed quarters in the dark fighting that everything is unclear. I wasn’t even sure how many predators or aliens there were at points.

The producers also discovered that neither the aliens or the predators can talk. This means in scenes with the aliens and predators, it has to be abundantly clear what is going on. Instead of making these scenes as minimal as possible, it seemed like there were tons of them. Once again, most of the coolness was lost in the confusion…though the predator did have some cool weapons…I liked the whip and the fact he stole the Glaive from Krull…then accidentally impaled Jesse with it.

Best of both (lame) worlds

Jesse’s death does demonstrate something that was kind of good about the movie…It really wasn’t clear who was going to make it out alive. There were pretty good odds for the military mother and her daughter, and for a second I thought at least one of the brothers was toast. Sam Trammell of True Blood fame also appears…and dies, but that wasn’t much of a surprise…never be the stay at home father in a movie.

Despite all that is bad with Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, I might still like the movie better than Aliens vs. Predator but I switch back and forth on that. Both movies really don’t make much sense in the grand Predator/Alien picture. The movies are almost stand alone pieces, but neither is very good at standing on their own.

Follow me on Twitter @JPRoscoe76! Loves all things pop-culture especially if it has a bit of a counter-culture twist. Plays video games (basically from the start when a neighbor brought home an Atari 2600), comic loving (for almost 30 years), and a true critic of movies. Enjoys the art house but also isn't afraid to let in one or two popular movies at the same time.